Google is all about constant change. There is nothing constant except the change itself. No long back, Google decided to eliminate the right side ads completely for desktop Search Engine Result Pages (Google SERPs) which was one of the most controversial change by Google. Marketers panicked while small businesses thought it was their end. There were many speculations in the search industry. However, we sailed through this.

Yet again Google comes up with some tweaks and changes to Google SERPs. But this time definitely a good thing for all of us. The titles and description meta tags are of new lengths in the Google Search Results. Google has now increased the word limit of the search results for its users. The space that is used for the organic search results has been extended to 600 pixels wide as compared to the earlier version of 500 pixels.

Titles

Now the title length is 70 characters before Google will show the title with dots (…). There is an increase of 10 to 15 characters. This is surely a good amount of add-on! The titles can go up to at least 71 characters, on the basis of letters used as i and l are small characters.

On the basis of the words’ length, this is an addition of 2 to 4 words which can be added to the title tags. Those satisfied with their title tags could add the name of their site at the end also.

It comes without that with any SEO changes, you will have to analyze CTR of old titles with new ones. However, it is important to keep in mind that there are many external factors that affect the click through rates, including that in some results, the organic result will be placed higher on the page and some that were below may show up.

Source: www.thesempost.com

This is what it looks like with 70 characters

Source: www.thesempost.com

Here is another one with 71 characters

Descriptions

The length of descriptions has also been increased by about 16 to 20 characters per line. The new length of new meta descriptions per line is 100 characters. However, it is important to note that Google still shows it shortened for many search results. This points out that the overall description is only displaying 150 to 160 characters in total as of now. The current description looks like this:

Source: www.thesempost.com

There are possibilities that Google would adjust their search results in order to allow longer overall descriptions, instead of the current description where the second line is shown half way down only. Also, the descriptions that came with 100 characters or less were shown.

We are also seeing descriptions that were 100 characters or less simply showing up with a single description line in the search results.

Having a short and sweet description that are under 100 characters might want some attention from your side since they will reduce your result’s chances in the search results. There are currently 278 characters per line.

These changes were first noticed by Ross Hudgens, founder of siege media who tweeted on Twitter regarding the Google’s new change in search engine result pages (Google SERPs).

Effect of Changes

SEOs that earlier were struggling within the title constraints now could use 10-15 characters more to fiddle with their title tags. However, it is important to keep in mind that Google could roll back these changes it has introduced with respect to search result widths and these character counts could be different for different languages.

There are changes and the brands like Pinterest are fiddling with their title and meta descriptions to check its impact on CTR.

Pinterest is testing numbers in their title tags. If it sticks, that's a strong argument for their CTR impact. pic.twitter.com/WpekhqFkfV

Why this change?

This could be a test which Google could take back at any time. By company’s side, it is always A/B testing. Therefore, it would be a good choice not to incline your SEO efforts to these new numbers until we get sure if the test will become a permanent change.

Though the change has gone unnoticed for the post part. As per the Reddit blog, the change in organic search appeared on May 4th and nobody is really talking about it.

“The analysis that I’ve done has shown that Google updated the search results layout to give organic listings an increased title tag size – as well as increased width of the Featured Snippets/Answer Boxes, but have decreased the height of the Featured Snippets/Answer Boxes.” – Reddit

This change might impact CTR in a positive way since it will give users a better view of what is there in the link. This could be a sign that it will be here to stay if there is continuous positive change.

Conclusion

Google’s every move towards changes ensure best user experience and there is no doubt it will continue to tweak its functionality and designs. Google has 80 to 90 percent ownership of shares in the market and with every change made by Google, it is going to impact most of us. There were many major changes rolled out by Google previously in this year. However, there was a deviation in what was expected from these changes and what really came out to be.

What do you think about the increased number of characters in title tags and meta descriptions? How do you think it will effect the SEO? We would be glad to hear from you. Share with us what you think about this Google’s new change in the comment section below!

Sakshi is a content marketer during the day and a reader by night. She writes content sprinkled with a twisted imagination. She has done her graduation in psychology from Delhi University and has an insane love for history.